by Leela Ash
Jessa shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”
She decided that she needed somebody to trust with her dilemma and suddenly the whole story bubbled out of her. She explained everything as quickly as she could to Carin. Carin was as taken aback as she listened to Jessa’s tale. She decided to open up to Jessa about the Motorcycle gang, and gave Jessa more information about what role they had played in taking her daughter, Jason’s mother. The more Jessa learned about these cruel men, the less inclined she was to bring her son in their direction. Unfortunately, that meant Michael was in even more trouble than she thought. She knew she had no choice but to help him.
“Jessa, we will come with you if you want to go try to help Michael. Jason has wanted to do something about that terrible group of men for a long time. Besides, I don’t want to think of anyone else in the same position that we were left in. It’s a horrible feeling.”
Jessa was surprised by the offer. She was sure that she was going to have to catch up with the rest of them and hope for the best, assuming that she could manage on her own. Miraculously, this no longer seemed to be the case. Somehow, they were willing to go into danger with her. Jessa was beside herself with emotion. She couldn’t believe that Carin was being so understanding about it all.
“Are you sure Carin? From what I am hearing, they are not going to be the easiest people to deal with.”
The older woman just nodded her head. “Someone is going to have to look after the boy. I am not much in a fight, but I can certainly watch out for Shane while you guys get close enough. I can at least do that much, take one last thing off of your mind.”
“Thank you Carin. I don’t know what to say.”
Carin just waved her off like there was nothing that needed to be said. “I care for Michael as well. He is a very kind man. And if he had a run in with that group as we did, there is a big reason that he has decided to chase them down.”
Jessa had to agree, but she still wondered what more she didn’t know. Michael had never talked much about what his life was like before they met, and it made her wonder if she knew him at all. Did a person ever really know someone?
***
Jessa didn’t have much trouble getting the rest of the group to go along with the plan. Milo felt a responsibility to Michael to make sure that the others were okay, but he knew that Jessa was not going to let Michael stay in trouble. She was there to make sure the man she loved was okay. There was still a knot in her stomach, but Jessa was starting to think that everything was going to work out somehow. She didn’t know how yet, but she had faith.
Shane was ready to go before everyone else. He hadn’t liked the idea of leaving Mike behind in the first place. Shane was already very attached to Michael, and he didn’t want to lose another father figure. Jessa tried not to see it that way, but when she had seen the devastation on her son’s face when he found out that Michael had left, it had been palpable. She had known exactly why he felt so strongly.
The decision wasn’t made lightly, but it had to be made quickly. He was already several hours ahead and Michael could move faster because he was not impeded by a large group of people. As they turned around and headed back toward the area where Michael had left, everyone was moving a little faster. Even Milo.
Jessa couldn’t shake her presentiment. Something bad was about to happen. She could feel it in her bones, but she didn’t want to say anything out loud. All she could really do was hope that Michael was okay and that it would stay that way for both him and the group as they journeyed to rescue him. Jessa didn’t want her decision to help Michael to hurt someone else, but she just couldn’t let him go. Jessa didn’t want to think about life without him.
“Mom?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Do you think that we are going to find him?”
It was like he was reading her mind and she shrugged. She didn’t have the answer, but she tried to assure him that they were going to do their best to make sure that they found him.
“We’re going to do our best to make sure nothing happens to him, even if we have to keep looking for a very long time. Okay, honey?”
He seemed happy with the answer, but she had to wonder if they were going to be there in time or not. Would their efforts be enough?
2
Michael kept his eyes closed, breathing heavily to try to ward away the pain. All he could think and hope was that Milo kept his word and kept Jessa and the group going on the road towards the coast. He didn’t want them to come back for him, even though he knew that he was in a position that would more than likely get him killed in the end. It wasn’t hard to think of where it was all going to go. He had been hit from behind and dragged into their camp. There was no getting out of it.
He had finally gotten to meet the man who had been the center of his vengeful obsession for years. He hadn’t known who he was; all he had known was that he would know when he saw him again. Michael had been searching for years, ultimately realizing that the world was too big, but finally fate had brought them back together. If only his fate hadn’t landed him tied up and in the midst of the monsters. There wasn’t much chance for vengeance this way. He had wanted to catch them off guard, but it appeared that he was the one who hadn’t seen it coming. Michael was angry at himself for letting them get the jump on him, but it was hard not to see that he just had been too consumed with the idea of revenge to pay attention.
Now he was paying for it. It didn’t look like a situation that he was going to find his way out of. There was no way that he could get free, and all the men in the camp were watching him like a hawk. Caston had made him tell him everything. Why had Michael been so reckless? Why was he after the group? Michael had not needed a prod to explain why he was there. He had wanted to confront the man for years. He dreamed about it; replayed it in his head until the little movie was on repeat. But in his fantasies, he had never been the one surrounded and tied up. It had always been Caston in that position.
Caston hadn’t killed him immediately. He seemed to like to toy with his victims and made a big show of thinking about Michael’s fate. The cruel man apparently wanted to keep the anticipation going long enough so that he got something out of the exchange. Not only that, but Michael realized that Caston seemed worried about where Michael had come from and where the rest of his party was. They had gotten the idea that Michael had a woman with him, and there was no way that he was going to dissuade them from it. Many of the men were so desperate for the touch of a woman that it became all they talked about; finding the woman and letting off some steam.
Michael tried to think of where to lead the group of men; somewhere he might actually have the upper hand. He could go back to the house they had holed up in for a couple of days, but he was pretty sure that the gang knew that they came from elsewhere.
Michael took the first round of questioning and their hard-line tactics in stride, but the next morning his arms felt like they were going to fall off. His entire body was sore from being kicked repeatedly the night before. He didn’t know how much longer he had, though there was little comfort in the way the men around him seemed to enjoy dragging out. When Caston came into Michael’s sights, the site where they had laid him up against a tree, the older man was smiling.
“I was hoping that we could have finished this last night, but you are making it harder on yourself. I always get what I want Mike.”
He wasn’t going to get anything from him though. There was no way that Michael would let a repeat of what happened before to his family happen again. There was no way that he would be able to live with himself. Caston was trying a different tactic that morning though. While Michael had been ready for the fight and torture that surely was to come, instead, Caston offered him something to drink. If Michael’s mouth hadn’t been so dry he would have declined. But he was dying for a drink and allowed the man to pour some in his mouth.
Michael wasn’t a fool though. He knew that the man was going to start in on him again. It was just
a matter of time before it happened.
“You have brought me back to a time, much in my past. I am not that person anymore Mike, and I wonder why you have held it for so long?”
He looked at him incredulously. Did the man really not get it? “You killed my family. That is not something that you let go of.”
Caston nodded like he understood. “Yet, look where it has gotten you?”
Michael couldn’t disagree. He was in quite a pickle and he wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out. But he had to make sure that Jessa and the others stayed free of the evil of the motorcycle gang. The only thing that kept him going was the idea that they were okay, even while he was hurting, and making their way to the coastline, safe from people like Caston.
“I am exactly where I am supposed to be,” Michael said.
Caston gave him a dirty look, wondering why the man was so calm when he knew what was coming for him. Caston could tell that he was smart, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. Michael was in a heap of shit, but it was the calm manner in which he conducted himself that made Caston nervous. It was like Michael thought he was going to be rescued or something. Caston didn’t understand the reaction. He was always nervous about things that he didn’t understand.
“How are you so calm? You know what we are going to do to you.”
Michael just nodded. The man would never understand sacrifice for another. He was sure that Caston had never loved anything in his sick little life but himself. There was nothing that he could do about it though. Michael shrugged and wished that he had gotten more to drink before he pissed the man off. Just that one movement of his head was enough to enrage Caston, and it was clear that he was having a hard time controlling himself.
In this strange place of calm, Michael was able to look at Caston in a different way. He was not the scary man that he had envisioned. He was a lonely old man that probably had never loved anyone or anything in his whole miserable life. That made Michael feel bad for him, and in his pity there wasn’t much room for fear at all.
Caston started to pace and he pulled out the scarf again. He was going to focus on something else for a time and he enjoyed the way that Michael’s eyes narrowed as he brought out the garment. “I see you care about this. Tell me where she is and maybe I will let you live.”
There was no way that Michael was going to say anything, but he did feel a little worry. He didn’t want a man like him going after Jessa, though he did think that she would have fared better. She was the level headed one, most of the time.
“She is long gone. You will never find her. That’s why I am so calm. Men like you don’t deserve to be around the rest of us.”
Caston was losing his patience and finally hit Michael. He had been wanting to for a while, but Michael gave him no satisfaction. He just looked at him with hateful eyes, the hit not fazing him in any way.
“I wasn’t too worried about it, but now you make me want to find her even more. I will get everything out of you Michael, whether you like it or not. And there’s nothing that you can do about it.”
Michael stopped himself from retorting. There was nothing he could do right then, so he clamped his mouth shut. He wanted to warn Caston of what would happen if he did find her, but Michael was past the point of being able to hide all of his feelings and didn’t want to say more than he should.
“You will tell me what I want to know Michael, and I will make you watch what happens next. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were going to be good luck to me. I just didn’t know how much.”
3
The group had been tracking Michael all day, and it wasn’t long before night fell and they had to stop. Jessa didn’t want to make camp. She felt sure that she was close, but she knew that it was too dangerous to keep going in the dark.
“Milo, can you find us a place?”
He nodded. There was a hesitation, like he shouldn’t leave them, but he finally turned around and left. Jessa knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be back with a place in mind. He was good at those types of things. She had briefly considered going back to the house, but something kept her from going back. It seemed wrong. Instead, she found herself stopping several miles before the house. It would have been easier to go back. Everything was already there and prepared for them. But she’d sent Milo in search of somewhere new.
“Why don’t we go back to that house mom?”
Shane was reading her thoughts again and it seemed like the two newest in the party felt the same way. They had made the place their home for quite some time. How could she explain it without scaring him? And did he need a little fear? Maybe they all needed a reminder of what they were walking into.
“Because Michael is around some bad men and they may come looking for us. So we don’t want to be where he could tell them we are.”
She could see him trying to process it, but soon he was shaking his dark head, disbelieving that such a thing might happen. He had seen a lot, but he was still naïve in many ways.
“Mike would never tell the bad men where we were. He wouldn’t.”
“He never would intentionally Shane. But sometimes people can get information from a person, even if they really don’t want to tell anyone.”
He thought about it some more and she could tell that he didn’t agree with her, but he wasn’t going to argue. Carin and Jason were quiet as well. Jessa had given them all something to think about. It was one thing to know there were possibilities that could arise from a decision. It was another to hear them out loud and to really think about it.
They were quiet as they waited for Milo to come back. He was taking longer than usual and she started to worry that he was found. Jessa’s nerves were on edge, quite possibly from her own thoughts of what was or could be happening.
Finally, Milo emerged from the darkness and led them to a place that wasn’t too far away. Jessa was relieved to see him and even more relieved that it was high on a bluff and she could see scope out the area easily. It was a great spot, and if she looked hard enough, Jessa could actually see the small cabin that they could have gone back to.
It was late by the time they had settled in. After everyone went to sleep and she was left to stand guard, her eyes kept settling on the cabin. She was waiting for something, but she couldn’t say what it might be. When it finally came, the dark smoke emerging from the chimney of the cabin, it was not a good feeling that went over her. It meant that the worst case scenario had happened. They had Michael and he had talked. Jessa knew that he wouldn’t have if he’d had a choice.
Of course, she was supposed to be gone like he told her to. He had told Milo to keep going on without him and to wait for him to catch up. He would believe that he hadn’t put them in any danger. She didn’t regret going back, but it meant that everyone with her was going to be in trouble. Jessa was torn once again and she didn’t know what to do, but she could see a fire burning in the old house. It wasn’t coincidence, nothing ever was.
“So they do have him.”
Jessa looked behind her to Milo and nodded. “Yeah, I guess they do. We need to go over there Milo, but I can’t leave Shane.”
He nodded his head, implying that he understood, but he didn’t say much more about it. “Well there is tomorrow. We can get there early, leave the other ones here.”
“Carin said she would watch Shane, so I think that is a good idea. Jason is too young to go into something like this.” They both knew that Milo was not that much older, but he had not been sheltered the same way that Jason had. He had been on his own and he’d had to learn how to survive on his own. Jason was still under the protection of his grandmother. It was not a bad thing, Jessa would have preferred that Milo had someone to protect him as well. However, it made Jason less likely to help them out much. Jessa didn’t want Jason to get hurt himself. His grandmother would never forgive it.
Jessa worried about Milo’s health though and if he would have the strength for what was needed. For a while, he had seemed to be getting
better, but the nearer they got to the city, the more he seemed to be coughing again and the less energy he had. She wondered if there was still radiation present. His body was already sensitive from all of the abuse that it had been given. The fact that the radiation was affecting him more seemed to give her a clue that they shouldn’t stay long. They needed to get in, get Michael and get out.
“Are you sure you are going to be up for it, Milo? It could get rough.”
Milo nodded his head. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had to be around people like that. Those were the type of people who would make life worse for everyone once they arrived. “I have seen groups that are not even human. I think that the world is full of them now. If it isn’t this group, there will always be another to deal with. There is never a shortage of bad people. The world needs people like Mike in it.”
Jessa agreed. She had done a lot of traveling and had encountered the worst, and the best, of people. She had never met anybody in between. In these times, it was one extreme or the other, and she was glad to have found so many good people to share the road with. But it was a reminder that there would always be good people. There would also be the worst. They would always have to fight for a place in the new world, and Milo was always good at reminding her.
“You’re right Milo. Mike makes the world a better place. He helped me out of more than one jam and I don’t know what I would have done without him. We have to get him back.” Jessa stopped, afraid she was going to lose herself to emotions. It was something she could never let herself do. Especially not when there was work to be done.
***
Milo told her that he would stand guard for a while so that she could get some sleep. She agreed, though it was hard to wait. Someone was in the cabin, and Jessa knew that whatever rest she managed was not going to be peaceful. They had to get closer and make sure that they weren’t seen. The last thing that she wanted to do was get caught as well. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, but soon it was morning and the time had come for them to leave.